Hunting
The earliest humans were hunters and gatherers, so we have been hunting from our earliest days. But even so it has, in most societies long ago been thrown away as a main food source, replaced by farming. Even if we can simply go to stores to get what food we want, hunting is still popular as a sport. In an zombie apocalypse, the system we expect to bring the food to us will be quick to fail, and then you will need to get your food yourself. Hunting is one good way to collect food and will proabably be one of the main food sources for wandering people and people on the run, and even people with other food sources (farmers etc.) will probably also hunt wild animals for food. Weapons Most rifles should be good for hunting, as well as most shotguns, although sawed off shotguns would be worse due to shorter barrel and wider spread, as well as a higher danger risk. Some pistols might work, higher calibers prefered, like the .45 but in most parts of the world, hunting with handguns is prohibited until shown a valid license. If firearms are unavailable or you just prefer not to, you can always use bows, crossbows and spears for a more silent approach. One advantage is that you can recycle your spent ammo. If civilization falls and we go back to hunting and gathering, then those might end up being our only weapons. What, on the other hand, should NOT be used as weapons are: *Automatic fire: using automatic fire is not only a waste of ammo when one bullet should be enogh, it also makes it harder to clean the meat before cooking and destroys the skin that can be used as warm clothing or armour. *Incendiary: If using flamethrowers to hunt for food and animal pelts is not a good enough reason for you, then you should also know that most incendiarys use chemicals wich are poisonus and you would not want in your food. The Flammenwerfer 35 is a German flamethrower that uses mainly petrol, tar, and hydrogen. Things that you don't want in your food. When using a flamethrower to foolishly hunt prey, you are basically burning the animal to death. That includes burning the meat and fur to a useless crisp. *Hunt rare animals:you don't want your food source to become extinct. Even if you don't hunt that creature much you should not forget what importance it may have in the food chain. *Meat bait: Not only will this attract zombies, but they will put your safety at risk, and animals at risk of the although unlikely event of getting eaten by a zombie. Hunting tactics When hunting in a zombie outbreak, you must be quick and quiet when you go out for food. It is good if part of the group go out and hunt while others stay behind. List of tactics Ambush An old, simple, but effective tactic. Animal, or herd of animals is lured or scared into a closed place where hunters kill them. Traps (for defensive purpose, check this page) Traps have also been used for hunting, though they have been banned in most countries now. Simple trap like falling pits or snares can be very effective. Terrain What you will hunt and how you will hunt will always depend upon the terrain. In some terrains there will be plenty of easily found animal life, in others they will be hiding easily and is some prey will by hard to find. Plains Be it the African savannah, American or Middle-Asian steppes or something else, two things would mostly affect your hunt there. The vast area without hideouts, and often herds of large mammals can make your hunt pretty easy. This also represents a problem due to how easy it is, humans have often hunted many of those large animals to near extincion. Tundra Tundras are most the time grown with pine or sesonal forests, wich can hide your prey, but also provide hideouts for you while sneaking up to it or ambushing it. During summers, a plenty of migratory birds will come to raise their youngs, especialy near the sea. Still bevare that some of them, like the arctic tern, gather in very large groups and attack everything that might threaten their youngs. Also are all year around some large animals, like reindeers and elks. Arctic Hunting on the polar region is hard business. Animal life is scarce and fish will proabably be the most important food source. To hunt, it would be best to copy the ways of the master arctic hunter, the polar bear. It mostly hunts seals and was it's tactic used for ages by the Inuits. They ambush seals by holes in the ice, wich the seal uses to breath. This tactic is also harder now do to melting icecaps. In the Antartic you can also add penguins on the menu. They often lay eggs in extremly large groups. You should still never kill to large portion of them as the stock may never recover, leaving you without good source of meat on a place where you can't afford that. Urban When the humans, or at least large portions of humanity, will disappear, nature will quickly start claiming land back. Of course hordes of hungry zombies dwelling in urban areas will proabably hinder that in many ways. Still wild animals would many seek shelter in abandomed suburbs, towns, and even cities where the number of zombies is not overwhelming. The predadors would then follow. Many animals would proabably by able to defend them self with horns, claws, teeths, reflexes and strength superior to humans (and zombies). Hunting in abandomed urbans would be easy to do providing you have large numbers of hideouts were you can sneak up or ambush your prey, and dead ends were it can be cornered and killed easily, just don't forget who the possible prey could be. Also, traps can easily be set, like in narrow entries like doors, deadfalls, pitfalls, or net traps Domesticated animals More inexperienced hunters can, during the first months, hunt the animals that local farmers had, if they have survived. As domesticated animals are normally more used to humans, sneaking up and hunting them would not be as hard as with wild animals. Just be sure that the owner has fled or died because you don't want an angry, armed farmer added on the list of things trying to get you because he/she may have needed them for their own food sources. If the prey is a cow or a chicken, then killing it isn't always your best bet per sey. Cows can be kept for milk and chickens can be kept for eggs for your breakfast omelette. Related subjects *Fishing *Bourgeoisie Stove